Suit filed to block swap of Sawmill preserve

Wednesday

Mar 6, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 6, 2013 at 11:27 AM

Environmental advocates eager to halt the state's plan to give a Sawmill Road-area wildlife preserve to a developer have moved from public protests to court. A lawsuit the Ohio Environmental Council filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court argues that the pending deal violates promises that state officials made to permanently preserve the 17.5-acre Sawmill State Wildlife Education Area.

Spencer Hunt, The Columbus Dispatch

Environmental advocates eager to halt the state’s plan to give a Sawmill Road-area wildlife preserve to a developer have moved from public protests to court.

A lawsuit the Ohio Environmental Council filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court argues that the pending deal violates promises that state officials made to permanently preserve the 17.5-acre Sawmill State Wildlife Education Area.

The lawsuit also seeks an injunction to keep officials from closing on the deal before the case is heard. A hearing date has not been set.

“We believe that time is of the essence,” said Cathy Loucas, an environmental-council attorney. “ We aren’t seeing any positive movement from” the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Natural Resources officials and James D. Schrim III, the manager of Worthington-based JDS So Cal Ltd., which is trying to acquire the site, declined to comment.

The lawsuit is the latest punch thrown in a months-old public fight over the fate of the Sawmill preserve and the two wetlands on the property. JDS So Cal would get the site by swapping it for a 43-acre property along the Olentangy River near Highbanks Metro Park.

The state got the Sawmill land in 1994 as part of a wetlands-conservation deal that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency had reached with developers building a nearby shopping center. A 2008 Ohio EPA report lists the Sawmill site as one of 14 remaining wetlands within I-270 capable of supporting amphibian wildlife.

The swap has inspired several protests that neighbors and environmental groups have held at the preserve. A group called Friends of the Sawmill Wetlands will offer a public tour there on Saturday, starting at 11 a.m.

A key question in the lawsuit is whether written statements that natural-resources officials made to preserve the land “in perpetuity” are legally binding. Loucas contends that they are. “The legal effect of the deed ultimately requires permanent preservation,” she said.

The lawsuit also argues that the 43-acre Olentangy River property is ecologically inferior to the Sawmill site because it contains no wetlands, and soil pollution in some areas requires an environmental cleanup.

Natural-resources officials have said that the 43-acre property is superior because it would grant greater public access to land in the Olentangy scenic-river corridor.

Ken Cramer, who is named as a witness in the lawsuit, said he bought his condominium in the area because of the Sawmill preserve.

“One of the things that really sold it to us was the fact that we had this beautiful wetlands area right across the road,” Cramer said. “We should be able to enjoy it forever.”

shunt@dispatch.com

@CDEnvironment

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